Mike Parker

Michael "Mike" Parker (23 June 1920-29 December 2001) was an Australian Royal Navy commander and Private Secretary to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh from 1947 to 1957.

Biography
Michael Parker was born in Melbourne, Australia on 23 June 1920, and he served in the Royal Australian Navy and the British Royal Navy between 1938 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant commander. He fought at the Battle of Narvik in Norway in 1940 before serving in the Pacific fleet, and he befriended the future Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1942 during their World War II service. In 1947, he became Philip's Private Secretary, and he also became his equerry and a member of the exclusive "Thursday Club" luncheon group. In 1956, he accompanied the Duke on his five-month world tour aboard the Britannia, during which he engaged in adultery with local women at almost every stop. His wife Eileen, who had been seeking a divorce for years due to Parker's neglect of his parental and marital duties in favor of his job, decided to sue him for divorce in 1958 after a waitress at the lunch club stole one of Parker's incriminating letters to the club and gave it to his wife. The divorce raised questions about whether the Duke himself had engaged in adultery, and about the stability of the royals' marriage. In order to quell the rumors, the Duke had Parker resign, but the two remained in contact throughout the rest of Parker's life. He returned to live in Australia in the late 1960s, and he became chairman of Australian Dredging and General Services director of Spoerry Australia. He died in Melbourne in 2001.